NEAR image of the day for 2000 Dec 04
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The Case of the Disappearing Pawprint As the Sun moves high into Eros' southern sky, the interior of the "paw" - the large crater known as Psyche and the several smaller craters superimposed on its rim - becomes increasingly shadowed. During the current season on the asteroid, the southern wall of the 5.3-kilometer (3.3-mile) diameter Psyche is barely ever illuminated.
NEAR Shoemaker took this picture of the paw on November 25, 2000, from a 197-kilometer (122-mile) altitude. The camera is pointed south-southwest, so the southern end of the feature is "up." The bright material on Psyche's northern wall is toward the bottom; below that is the darkened northern hemisphere. The whole scene is about 7.4 kilometers (4.6 miles) across.
(Image 0150567218)
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Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, NEAR-Shoemaker was the first spacecraft launched in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. See the NEAR web site for more details. Feedback to Scott Murchie. Scott.Murchie@jhuapl.edu.